Kalvin is ONE!!!!

I can't believe my little baby has turned one! We had a party for him and our awesome friends and family helped us celebrate! I have tons of pictures from the day but those will be posted later when I'm on a real computer (and not using my phone and netbook...) Check out the awesome ride-on toy Kalvin's Gammy and Gandu got him! He LOVES it! He'd sit there all day if I'd let him :)
Last week I discovered the hard way that Vera is allergic to bees!!! It was super scary! Thankfully with a call to the on-call vet and 2 hefty doses of Benadryl, her face became less puffy by the next day! My poor dog has had a terrible few months!!

I've been trying to do fun projects with Kalvin. It's so fun watching him try new things. He was a big fan of coloring with markers! Thank goodness for back to school art supplies on sale right now!!

Kalvin still doesn't really like food. Someday maybe....

He had his one year shots last week. The doctor said everything looked great! We're pretty sure he's going to be a little peanut when he's older! Right now he weighs 21 pounds and is in the 24th percentile and he's only in the 19th percentile for length! I think it's God's way of trying to help my hands not hurt so much!

Our other big news is...We're for sure going to be building a house!!!!! I'm guessing we're going to break ground next Spring because we can't get everything in order for this year I'm sure. The water well and septic will probably be going in this fall though!

I'm nervous and super excited at the same time. Nervous about being the General Contractor and trying to get everything in order while also caring for Kalvin and also excited to get out of the old house we're living in! The thought of less spiders and having a bathtub that actually drains is keeping me motivated!

Hope everyone is having a great start of August! I'll TRY to get birthday pictures up very soon!!

Greatest.Invention.EVER!!

We've lived in this house for just over a year and I still hadn't put up any curtains (except in Kalvin's room!) There are lots of windows and I didn't want to spend a ton of money on curtains that probably wouldn't work in the next house we're in. Well...yesterday I solved all the curtain problems I was having!!!!!


At Target they have pleated vinyl shades for $4.99 each!! They are meant to be temporary shades so there is no screws or man stuff required! Since we live in an old house, the temp outside is usually the temp inside! The other day the floor in the dining room was so hot from the sun coming in that we couldn't stand in those spots!!!

All I did to hang these bad boys was measure my window, mark out where I needed to cut the shade (they come in 36" x 72"), cut the shade with a sharp utility knife, peel the sticky strip off and stick it up there!!! It seriously took less than 5 minutes a window! I know you're probably thinking this sounds super tacky and nasty...but for us it worked amazing!! Dan isn't around much so it's nice to be able to do things like this myself!

I hung a few up last night and was so excited to hang more today that I didn't sleep well last night. haha...yes...I know I'm a dork!

Check it out...

BEFORE: Super nasty boarded up window in our dining room that I've had to look at for an entire year!!

AFTER: YAY!! It's covered up!!

They even have a cord and string to move them up and down easily! I've hung 4 in our dining room, 1 in the kitchen and 3 in our bedroom and I'm trying to think where else I can put them because I'm enjoying them so much! I may hang some room darkening ones in Kalvin's room... :)

So if anyone needs a cheap and easy fix for a window covering, these are a super awesome option!

Holy Humidity!!

I hope everyone had a great Memorial Weekend. Dan spent the weekend working so we didn't get to do anything fun. :( I'm already looking forward to my birthday next Monday. Dan took the day off work to be with Kalvin and I!!!!!!!!!!! It has been way too long since we had an entire day without Dan working!! In fact, I can't even remember when it was...

Any ideas of fun things to do for the day?? Last year for my birthday we went to Como Zoo and then went for ice cream. It was a really fun day but I was 8 months pregnant. Walking around in 90 degree heat was a bad idea!! I felt like a big fat sweaty whale!

Speaking of being sweaty...Our house is so incredibly humid!! It was pretty hard to sleep last night. I'm getting pretty sick of living in this old house :( The windows don't open and even if they did...there are no screens so critters would walk or fly right in! I don't want another bat in our bedroom!! EEK! Someday we'll live in a new place!!

Here are a few pictures from this morning!

And this is what's going on at this very second:

I snuck in to take some sleeping pictures of Kalvin. He always looks so peaceful. I still have the crib bumper in because Kalvin uses it to calm himself down. When he's trying to fall asleep he'll touch those bumps on the minky fabric.

And here's Vera! I had to physically carry her back in the house...all 40lbs of her! She didn't want to come in. I don't blame her! It's beautiful (but windy) out! I'm scared for Vera to spend time outside because I don't want her to get bit up again! The fields and tall grass behind her are breeding grounds for bugs (and snakes!!).

Maybe after Kalvin wakes up we'll slather sunscreen on Kalvin and brave the wind so we can go for a walk! YAY for not having to be so sheltered in the house anymore!

A wonderful day!

AHHHHH!! Today has been an amazing day compared to the rest of my week! I got the lawn mowed, Vera's neck is looking slightly better, the house is (kind of) clean, went for a play date with a great friend, Dan had a productive day at work, Kalvin is in bed, and now I'm finally enjoying some supper and a cold beer!

Here are some pictures from today:

Vera always scoots her butt right up to Kalvin's face and then he grabs her tail...It really grosses me out and I always scrub Kalvin's hands with anti-bacterial soap after this!

Kalvin got his faced licked...notice the hair sticking up on the left! He got a bath tonight to clean off the layers of sunscreen, dog spit, and dirt!

Our lilacs are also blooming!!! They smell AMAZING! I love having fresh flowers in the house!

I was so excited about the mason jars full of lilacs that I called Dan and told him how good our house smelled...He didn't seem impressed...I guess he's allergic to the pollen :( Rats!! I guess it's good he's not home much because I'm not removing them from the house! He'll just have to suffer the 7 hours he's home to sleep :) he he!

This has been my day...

We tried another egg yolk with Kalvin this morning. It went okay... He didn't really get many bites in. He mostly just wanted to play with it and push it all on the floor. He did get a red blotchy rash on this hands and tummy about 15 minutes after I took him out of his chair (hmmmm) He also had some pretty nasty poopy diapers this afternoon (sorry if that was TMI). I'm not sure if that was related. We may have to try it again when he'll actually take a few real bites.

Kalvin was a big messy pig after playing with the egg so I stripped him down!


Kalvin has been busy exploring the house. He pretty much pulls himself up on everything. He hasn't taken any steps yet but I can tell he wants to!

Because he's been so busy exploring the house...I emptied out the bottom part of this cabinet for him. It was filled with glass serving dishes and platters and I was getting really sick of telling him NO all the time. So the stuff is moved and I've given that cabinet to Kalvin. He's a happy boy! He enjoyed crawling in and out of it!

He had a long afternoon of playing and now he's been napping for 3 1/2 hours! All this playing is making me sleepy too! I can't believe how exhausted he makes me at the end of the day! He's becoming so silly though and everyday I'm thankful for being able to stay home with him! I wouldn't trade it for the world!

A girl can dream...

Photo borrowed from: http://www.livinglocurto.com

The last few weeks I've been looking at more house plans. Dan and I REALLY want to build a new house. Dan is seriously hoping to break ground this fall. I came across this picture today and fell in love! Not that we'd ever be able to afford a room like this but isn't it awesome?!?!?! I imagine this room to be an upstairs bonus room where we'd keep craft supplies as well as our kid toys. I also love the cork flooring! The whole room just makes me smile!!

A room like this is definitely not in our budget and I'm a much more practical person than this. I can still dream, right? Ohhh my goodness would I love to get my hands on those shelves!! I would be in organizing heaven!!!!!

OK...I've come down from my cloud and I'm back to reality. RATS! :)

One more quick update... Kalvin has been a sleeping champ! He's been sleeping a solid 11 hours at night PLUS two 2hour naps in the day. I've been so bored lately! I need a hobby!

Where is spring???

The sun is shining!! However,it would be more beautiful if THESE--------> weren't in the way of my view!

Aren't they creepy??

I think I need spring...NOW!!

My latest confession/obsession...

No pictures right now because Kalvin is napping :) I feel like I have so much more free time when I'm not struggling to put Kalvin to sleep all day! This is great!!

I have a bit of a confession/obsession that I've been meaning to share... Lately I've really felt the need to de-clutter my life and try to use things up so can throw it away. I've always done this to a certain extend but lately it has become almost a game. ha ha! Here are a few examples of what I'm talking about...

• Wearing my socks that are almost wore through so I can discard them and clear out my drawer. I won't buy more socks until I've used up the ones I already have! Even if this means I'll have to wear the snoopy socks Dan got my for Xmas one year...
• Wearing underwear I don't like just to 'wear them out'.
• Burning candles all day/every day.
• Combining kitchen and pantry items to make less clutter
• Putting on lotion everyday...not because my skin is dry but because I have way too many lotions!
• Same with body spray! I've been wearing body spray that's about 10 years old just to use it up because I just can't get rid of it until it's gone!
• I've also been using the body spray as room freshener :)
• I've even started paying closer attention to packaging before I buy something. Less waste is always better.
• the list goes on and on and on...

I feel such a sense of accomplishment when I can finally throw something away! But I can't throw away anything that might have a use someday! (Hence the reason why I can't seem to toss the burned up candle jars!!!) Don't get me wrong...I'm not a hoarder. All my things have a very specific spot and I know where everything lives! (organization is my other obsession!!)

Maybe this all stems from becoming super frugal since I don't have a job. Maybe being frugal and saving us money IS my job?!?!?! :) You read how excited I was about rummage saleing for stuff for Kalvin. I definately can't wait for this spring and summer to see what other good things I can find! hehe!

Ok...I'll stop there. I'm weird...I know! Hope everyone has a wonderful Friday and an even more wonderful weekend!!!

SNOW DAY!

Here's an update on whats been going on in the Prieve house...
Kalvin has been crawling all over the place! He can really entertain himself with exploring. Yesterday he found Vera's water dish...hmmmm looks like I'll need to do some childproofing. I also need to invest in some baby-gates to separate the baby and the puppy so they can both wander freely. If they are together...Kalvin's face gets licked so much that he can't move!

Yep...That's another snake...making the count: THREE!!! They have all been found in Kalvin's room wrapped around extension cords. Last night I went in to Kalvin's room to get him all ready for bed and found this one. I yelled down to Dan to get the gloves and the bag because we had another snake. All he yelled back was "Yeah Right!!". Why would I joke about that?? haha! I must admit...the first one was scary and the last two have actually been pretty funny because we still can't believe we have so many snakes in the house!! It's soooo weird!

While he was trying to pull the snake off the extension cord, Dan broke off the last few inches of the snake's tail. That's what that piece in the bottom right corner is! He put it in the bag and left it in our entryway. It was pouring rain and he didn't want to go outside. He was planning to kill it this morning.

Then we woke up to this!! We knew we were supposed to get 1-3 inches...but we had no idea we'd get THIS much snow. Dan is actually home from work today. He tried to leave and the roads were so bad he had to turn around! He went about 5 miles and it took him over 40 minutes! When the roads are good, his drive takes him an hour! He didn't think it was worth it to risk his life! I agree!

YAY for a snow day!! Boo for having to use a day of vacation on this yucky weather! SPRING, WHERE ARE YOU?????

Snake Count = 2!!!!!!!

While I was changing Kalvin's diaper yesterday, I looked by the garbage can where the snake was the other day. I was VERY surprised that there was ANOTHER one in that exact same spot!!!!!!!! Kalvin's room must be the perfect snake hide-out! We can't figure out if they like the smell of Kalvin's garbage?? or if they like cuddling up to a cord we have back there because it's kind of warm??? Either way...GROSS!!

This time Dan was home so he had the privilege of disposing of it!! Dan didn't mind me documenting with the camera so here you go:

It was a quick one (like the last one!) but Dan caught it!

I made him pose with it :) That's not a normal gallon size bag either! It's a jumbo- size 2.5 gallon bag! I measured and our snake friend was about 20 inches long. You may be thinking...ohhhh that's just a small one. Well....How many snakes have you had in your house in the last week??? Yeah...see...this one is bigger than yours :)

Last Spring and Summer we had TONS of snakes outside. Dan probably killed over 100 of them (but they were all outside!!) He was always really grossed out by them! It's funny that with a pair of gardening gloves, a ziploc bag, and a camera...Dan can get so brave!!

. Just a little more posing with te snake and then he brought it outside and killed it with a spade...this one wont be coming back in!!

I always make Dan do all the worst jobs around the house. I made him catch the swooping bat in our bedroom at 2am...he's taken about 10 mice out of traps, killed the nastiest spiders, and now we can add snake removal to that list! Seriously...WHAT'S NEXT!?!?

SNAKE...IN OUR HOUSE!!!!!!!!!

That's right... you read the title correctly! A nasty slithery snake was on the second level of our house!

I had just put Kalvin down for a nap so I was sneaking quietly out of the bedroom. I looked and there was a snake at the top of the stairs looking at me! I screamed (naturally...because I'm a girl and I was scared...) and I woke Kalvin up who was now screaming too! While I was debating what to do (my cellphone, computer, and camera were all downstairs!!!!) the snake slithered away!!!!!!!!!! I searched around and found it hanging out in Kalvin's room so I shut the door and put a towel under the door. (Pretty stupid plan..I know...but it was the best I could think of at the time!)

I was officially freaked out and the only thing I could do was leave the house! So I made a trip to Target to clear my head and gather my thoughts. Target is always a great place to go when getting away from snakes!

I talked to my parents for a long time about what to do and how to get this critter out of my house. We decided I would call the police department! Here are some pictures from my day:

Here's Kalvin all ready to go to Target! He loves browsing too!!

When I came home, the snake was coiled around an outlet behind the garbage can in Kalvin's room!

The nice police man got it out...with the help of his son's hockey stick, a pillow case, and a pair of my garden gloves!


Yep...that's the snake dangling in his hand! I really wanted to take pictures of him removing it from the room but I refrained until his back was turned and he was outside :) hehe!

Our House- Dining/Living Room (AFTER)

Here are the after pictures!!

I think it turned out surprisingly well for not spending much money! We ripped out all the carpet on the main level and replaced it with laminate flooring from Menard's. We watched the flyer's and got it for .89 sq/ft! We painted over the wood paneling in the dining room and the wallpaper in the living room. (I am normally against painting wallpaper...but this was stuck down very good!!)

The house had original trim work that was very damaged from years of wear. I REALLY wanted it painted to freshen it up! Dan's dad was very unsure of this plan but has since commented on how nice it turned out!
Before we moved we sold our table on Craigslist and used a card table for the first few months. A friend gave us this mission style table to use! I recovered the nasty/dirty cloth seats with black vinyl. Cost = around 30 dollars! Even though it doesn't match the rest of our furniture...I can live with it because it was free!!!

We bought that giant black cabinet with doors at Ikea. This house doesn't have as much storage so I use it for movies, blankets, extra kitchen stuff and whatever else I need to store! We'll be able to take this with and use in another house down the road!

Here's the view from inside the living room. We kept the ceiling fan in the dining room and painted the ugly wood fan blades white. I also painted the built-in china cabinet. Everything else we brought from our previous house. Overall...I'd say the makeover was a success!

This is Kalvin's room again but yesterday I had Dan tack down an extension cord I had running around the entire room. Old houses often only have 1 outlet per room and it never seems to be in the right spot! The radio in Kalvin's room had a black cord so I taped it up and painted over it. Not perfect but better!!

And here's Kalvin today!!

Wowwe...3 posts today!!!! I guess I had a lot to talk about!!

Our House- Dining/Living Room (BEFORE)

I thought I should continue the tour of our house! We moved in almost exactly a year ago. Last March we were busy painting, putting down flooring, and packing up our other house! Glad to be more settled this year!

We actually moved into Dan's grandparent's home. His grandpa passed away last January and his grandma moved into an assisted living home. The house needed some major updating and Dan was very hesitate to fix it up. He thought it was beyond fixing...I assured him it was salvageable!

Here are some before pictures!!!

Back Home!

I finally have my computer up and running! I've been a crazy woman trying to unpack our things and get the house back in order! In just one week ladybugs can take over the house, dust bunnies can form everywhere, laundry baskets can explode with clothes and plants can dry up (See pic below...). This is how one of our plant looked when I got home!!! I asked Dan why he hadn't watered it and he said he hadn't noticed it...hmmm odd... because it's the very first thing I noticed! I gave it 32 oz of water and today it seems to have perked up a bit!

In other big news...I've added dairy back into my diet!! WHOO HOO!! It opens up so many meal choices for me now! Kalvin seems to be doing alright so I'm going to keep enjoying Dairy Queen ice cream and yummy cheese! My chip options have really expanded too :) yum!

Time for me to put this babe down for a nap and get our tax stuff all ready for today's big meeting...yep...definately back to reality! AUGHH I need a vacation somewhere warm!!

Kalvin's Nursery...plus some random stuff!

Today I will give you a sneak-peek into Kalvin's nursery. He's still sleeping in our room so his crib doesn't get much sleeping time but he loves to play in his room! We spend lots of time singing, reading, and listening to music in here. We also change his diapers and clothes in his bedroom! When the weather warms up and we don't need space heaters, we'll transition him into his own room.

My mom made the most beautiful bed skirt,which unfortunately you can't see in this picture and curtains. I used that same fabric and made some pictures. That fabric makes me so happy :)

The fisher-price crib toy was Dan's when he was a baby. Kalvin absolutely loves it! I think it's such a sweet touch to his room!

Here's Kalvin's little changing table. I just hung those pictures above his table a few days ago. It gives him something to look at now! My mom had that basket at his house so I snatched it up and use it as a laundry basket.

I know all that stuff on the top shelf looks really cluttery. I'm waiting for the perfect shelf/organizer to come along so I can put that junk and Kalvin's toys in it!

And here are Kalvin's beautiful curtains! I love them!!! I also snatched up that little rocking chair from my parent's garage and repainted it. The seat has a star pattern punched out and it is perfect in Kalvin's room.

There was the quick and simple tour of his room... It's nothing too fancy but it works wonderful for us! None of my sisters have seen our house so maybe slowly I'll give you a tour of the entire thing :)

Update on that mesh feeder thing from yesterday...I put an ice cube in it last night and Kalvin when NUTS over it! Maybe today I'll try a sweet potato cube I have frozen :)

One more little update...The other day I moved the ottoman from our living room so I could block off another room from Vera! So now she can only go in the dining room and the kitchen! Plenty of room for her until I can trust her more! She's not a fan but now I can always see her and she can't hide as well!! We're thinking about doing an obedience class with her so she starts listening better! That would be awesome!!